Elira answers your office phone (free pilot)
Free-pilot schools can forward missed, busy and after-hours calls to Elira. Sign the add-on on Build Elira’s Brain, forward your office number, and review what she answered.
Your office number stays yours. When your office cannot pick up, the call forwards to Elira, and she answers from the same school information she uses on your website and text line. Your texts stay on your school's number.
Who can turn it on
Schools in the free pilot. It is not yet offered to paid schools. Finish Build Elira’s Brain first — the voice line stays locked until it is done.
Turn it on
- On Build Elira’s Brain, find Elira’s voice line and enter the office number families call.
- Read the Voice Receptionist Add-On Amendment, then press Read filled amendment to see it with your school's details.
- Tick both boxes and press Sign and set up voice line. AskElira then assigns a phone number for your school and shows it on the same card.
Forward your office number to it
Ask whoever manages your phones to forward your office number to the AskElira number, in the cases you choose:
- when nobody answers after a few rings — set it to forward *before* your voicemail picks up, or turn voicemail off on that line;
- when the line is busy;
- after hours.
Most phone systems call these *No Answer* and *Busy* forwarding. Then call your office number, let it ring, and check that Elira answers.
What callers hear
Before Elira listens to anything, a caller hears: *"Hi, you've reached {your school}. The office is closed right now. I'm an automated AI assistant. This call is recorded and transcribed, and handled live by the school's AI services, AskElira and OpenAI. To agree and continue, press 1."*
During your office hours the second sentence is *"The office staff can't come to the phone right now."* instead. A caller can press 2 for Spanish or 3 for Arabic and hears the same notice in that language. Elira listens only after the caller presses 1.
What she does with the call
- She never transfers a call to a person. A caller who asks for someone can leave a message.
- Messages, and questions she could not answer, appear on AI Knowledge marked *left by phone*, with the caller's number.
- Every question she did answer is listed under Answered by phone, and in the hourly office email, for your office to confirm or correct. See Review what Elira answered on the phone.
- She does not take an email address by phone, and nothing is texted or emailed to a caller. Your office calls the family back at their number.
Minutes
The pilot includes 120 minutes a month at no cost. At 200 minutes in a month the line stops answering until the next month.
Stopping it
Any time, with no penalty: press Stop Elira answering calls on the same card, or stop forwarding your office number. Turn Elira back on restarts it without signing again.